9. DRC-HUBO
Our feature on robots so far has made much ado about cool robotic features, but the winner of the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge won by acing mundane functions such as opening a door and operating a hand drill.
HUBO, a bipedal walking robot from South Korean university KAIST, won the US$2 million challenge by relying on its ‘transformer’ ability to switch between standing and kneeling forms—it even has wheels on its knees! HUBO completed all eight tasks in an impressive time of 44 minutes and 28 seconds while
its competitors struggled.
Find out more in our exclusive interview with HUBO’s inventor Professor Oh Jun Ho!
